


Sweet Thang

by caperingcrusader



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Baking, F/F, F/M, Female Reader, Mute Frisk, Mute OC, POV Female Character, Panic Attacks, Post-Pacifist Route, Post-True Route, Reader Is Not Frisk, Reader-Insert, Social Anxiety, Stress Baking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:31:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caperingcrusader/pseuds/caperingcrusader
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your life was completely normal before monsters came along. Living in the shadow of Mount Ebott, you were occupied with producing new varieties of delicious baked goods and trying to not feel too guilty about the life you ran away from. Your days were boring and aimless but normal. When monsters burst in on the scene you’re caught up in fighting back a whirlwind of anti-monster bullshit, and end up trying to fix society while trying to fix your own life. </p>
<p>And somewhere down the line the weird, wonderful and amazing people you meet end up becoming something like family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fic in an incredibly long time, so please forgive me if my writing skills are rusty and it sucks. Eventual Sans/Female Reader but probably gonna be a slow burn.
> 
>  
> 
> No warnings to speak of so far, expect for some swearing in this chapter.

 

The icy wind bites at your cheeks as you cycle through the forest, cold hands tightly gripping your bike’s handlebars. It’s still dark out, any early morning light trying to make an appearance blocked out by the trees around you. The only source of heat is your overfull backpack, the fresh loaves still warm from the oven. You had been awake for several hours already, having woken up in the small hours of the morning to bake your usual daily batches.

 Giggling, you remember the funny text exchange you’d had with your brother not long after waking up. He’d linked you to a few weird news stories that claimed “monsters” - whatever that was supposed to mean - not only existed, but were planning to join human society. That wasn’t the funny part though, plenty of conspiracy stories kicked around on the internet, the part that had amused you and your brother was that the articles had claimed the monsters originated from Mount Ebott, a small mountain which you lived almost directly at the foot of. The articles had all been uncannily accurate about the local details they mentioned, and Mount Ebott wasn’t significant to anyone who didn’t live within eyesight of it, so the hoax must have been put together by someone who knew the area. Continuing the trend of strangeness the articles all seemed to get taken down not long after they were uploaded, which was a shame since it would’ve been funny to see the reactions of the town’s residents to their home featuring in some joke conspiracy theory. Even though you’d only been poking fun at the story and kidding around it had been nice to catch up with Alex. Your twin was on tour at the moment so he kept funny hours, usually only just going to sleep as you got up for the start of your own odd routine.

 You began to pedal a little harder as the changing landscape hinted you were getting close to the town. Suddenly a blue and white shape seemed to blink into existence in front of you, you barely had time to double take - was that a person? You slammed on the brakes to try and avoid hitting them, but the bike was going too fast and tumbled forwards, flipping you over the handlebars and sending you crashing into the cause of your emergency stop. You felt the other person moving under you as they let out a pained groan.

“Shit! I’m so sorry, are you okay?” You gasp as soon as you catch your breath, the urge to apologize for hitting someone overriding both the fact that it probably wasn’t your fault and your usual shyness around new people. Then you turn to look at your victim and all rational thought disappears from your mind, you squeak out a noise that probably would have been a scream had you enough air in your lungs and you scramble backwards. A skeleton sits across from you on the leafy forest floor. A skeleton wearing a hoodie and shorts. HOLY FUCKING SHIT A SKELETON THAT JUST BLINKED! 

And then to continue the trend of defying all known logic the skeleton speaks. “Heh. I’m okay, are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost, but that’s not quite the right kind of monster.” 

He - at least you think they’re a he - then winks at you, which does nothing to help with the processing error your brain is currently having.

 “Y-You’re a- How are you talking? You’re a skeleton?” Your voice sounds embarrassingly high pitched, or at least you would be embarrassed if you hadn’t just used an animated skeleton as a living speedbump, what the shit. Your brain randomly jumps to the next nonsensical part of this picture. “Why’re you wearing slippers outdoors?”

“Right, sorry kid, let me try and explain all this before you run off.” He sits up as he says that, frowning slightly. Now that he mentions it running sounds like a totally reasonable and valid option, but despite the bizarreness of your current situation it feels like it would be rude to run off when he’s talking to you so…. normally.

The skeleton waits a beat, maybe to see if you’re going to try and run or not, before he starts talking again 

“How do I even explain this? So, monsters are a thing, and we come in all different shapes and sizes  but basically we’re living beings powered by magic. Aside from that we’re just people, most of us are pretty nice, we aren’t really that different from humans.” You can’t help but snort at his assessment of nice not being that different from humans, and one side of his fixed grin twitches, he seems to get what you find funny. “Way back we used to live up here on the surface with humans, but uh, there was a war between monsters and humans a long time ago and monsterkind ended up sealed underground.” 

The skeleton catches your eye to see if you’re still following and you give him a slight nod. Crazy though all this is nothing he’s said so far is weirder than an actual living skeleton being in front of you.

“After being trapped underground for a long time, we eventually managed to break the seal and now monsters are starting to move out onto the surface. The exit from the underground is through that mountain,” he gestures vaguely in the direction of Mount Ebott, “so at the moment we’re all kind of hiding out in the forest here. Which sounds creepier than it is, your government has asked us not to make ourselves known yet so we’ve tried to set up a hidden camp in the forest.”

He doesn’t speak for a few moments after finishing his speech, the glowing white points in his eyes - eye sockets? - study your reaction before he breaks the silence again.

“To answer your questions from earlier: I can talk because magic, yes I’m a skeleton, and slippers are comfy why wouldn’t I wear them? I’m Sans by the way.”

 He holds his hand out for you to shake as he finishes his introduction. You gently clasp his hand, the bones are surprisingly warm and don’t feel as fragile as you’d expected. Your reflection is interrupted by a crude farting noise and you realize at some point a whoopee cushion had ended up between your hands. You snort in amusement, it’s a lame practical joke but the timing does break the tension as you try to take in the overload of reality altering information.

 You take a few moments before you reply but the skeleton - Sans - seems fine with waiting in silence for your response. “Sorry,” You mutter when you realize how long you’d been silent, “I’m ______. I guess that actually kind of makes sense, as far as monsters and talking skeletons go.  Sorry I’m taking a while to take this in, I’m kind of shell-shocked still. And uh, I’m sorry about mowing you down earlier.”

Sans’ grin seems to widen. “Actually you’re doing pretty well, the few other humans who’ve stumbled upon us out here all ran away around the ten second mark. Although you do look a little **skiddish**.”  

He nods towards the deep tracks your bike had left in the mud and you can’t help but snort again. Something about Sans was setting you at ease in spite of everything. A gust of wind reminds you how cold you are, and you realized that your pants are damp from the forest floor.

“I don’t know about you but that wind is blowing right through me. You okay to stand, kid?” 

Sans’ expression hasn’t really changed at all but you get the feeling that his concern is genuine. You check yourself over before answering. Miraculously you don’t seem to have injured yourself that badly in your dramatic bike flip, your legs are a little scuffed up and your butt hurts but nothing seems to be bleeding or broken.

“I think I’m good.” You grin back at him before shakily getting to your feet. He gets up as you do, reaching out a boney hand to steady you when you wobble.

You turn to pick up your bike and groan as you notice the state of it - the front wheel is bent almost in half, presumably from the impact of the bike flipping forward.

Sans followed your gaze and winced. “I’m no expert, but I don’t think you should be riding that anymore. Sorry, that’s my fault too isn’t it.”

“No, it’s fine. If I’d been going slower it would have been easier for me to stop. At least we’re both okay, right?”

“Yeah, you don’t need to worry about me, I’m pretty thick-skulled. Besides, worse case scenario I can always pick up some spare ribs.”

You roll your eyes but can’t help grinning as you pick up your bike. “Ugh, that was wheelie terrible.” 

“I guess my heart wasn’t in it. Do you need any help getting anywhere?” Sans asked, gesturing again to your busted bike.

“I was riding into to town to make some deliveries but I might just skip it and head back home, it’d be pretty tricky without my bike in action. I live a few miles that way so I’ll be able to just walk back.” 

“Sure. Want company?”

It’s nice of him to offer to walk you home, you can tell he’s being careful to leave an out in case you’re still freaking out about everything. All things considered Sans seems to be a pretty nice guy so far, and you’d appreciate the distraction of his bad humour on the cold walk home. “Sounds good, if it isn’t too far out of your way.”

Sans shrugs easily. “Nah, it’s no problem. So you must have an easy-going boss to be able to drop that delivery.”

You fall into step as you walk together. You explain that you just bake a few bits and pieces for some local businesses and cycle out most mornings to deliver them, but they’re used to your patterns being a little inconsistent and the agreements are informal. That gets the two of you talking about food and the town, as well as starting a chain of baking puns. Apart from a few moments of not uncomfortable silence you and Sans talk throughout the journey, the walk seems to take much quicker than it usually does and before long you’re approaching the house. 

You’re conscious of the fact that your house looks kind of like a stereotypical cartoon of a haunted house, but it was your grandma’s house, the house you grew up in, so you love it nonetheless.

Sans seems pretty impressed anyway as he nods up at it. “Nice place.” 

You stuff your hands in your pockets, self-conscious now that the walk is over. “Thanks.” You briefly consider inviting Sans in for a coffee or something but even though the skeleton has been nothing but nice, you really want some time to digest everything that’s happened.

Sans almost seems to read your mind and doesn't miss a beat before responding. “I should get going now. It was nice running into you though kid, see you around.”

He makes to leave as you say a goodbye, before turning back. “Oh, and you've probably guessed this already, but you don’t want to mention anything about monsters to anyone yet. It’d only cause a bad time for you.”

You blink in response and when you open your eyes again he’s gone.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter didn't really turn out as I expected. But it does build up some important background stuff that will be relevant later so hopefully it doesn't feel like filler!

 

The week following your discovery of monsters passes in a surprisingly normal fashion. You expected your daily life to be altered at least a little by the shocking revelation of a sentient monster race, but you hadn’t encountered Sans since your first meeting, nor seen a trace of any other monster, so your usual routine continued uninterrupted.   

Once you had the chance to reflect on meeting Sans you carefully turn over all the little details you can recall. He’d been short, a little taller than you but shorter than most humans. You try and recall what he’d been wearing, a blue hoodie and shorts you think. Casual human looking clothes. His bones had been kind of chunky, the shape of them didn’t seem to fit together the way a human skeleton would. High school biology was a long time ago but you were pretty confident that human bone didn’t move in the way that Sans did, and definitely didn’t blink or smile. Maybe it was more magic that allowed him to move around like that, ‘magic’ had certainly featured heavily in Sans’ short explanation of monsters. You shake your head, trying to clear your thoughts. You have way too many questions and nothing to answer them with. Plus you felt a little awkward about constantly comparing Sans with human standards, even just in your head. It felt rude.

 

The next time you Skype your twin, Alex, it briefly crosses your mind to tell him that you’d met a living skeleton. You know that after a lot of laughing on Alex’s part and a lot of explaining on yours he’d believe you, Alex can always tell when you’re telling the truth. But something holds you back, and although you hated to keep anything from your twin you decide to stay quiet for the time being. Sans had seemed friendly and after you gotten over the initial shock you’d found him funny and likable, but in his parting warning to keep monsters a secret his tone had dropped to something flat and serious and in that moment the skeleton had been genuinely scary.

Alex still seems to realize that something’s up, uncannily picking up on the fact that there’s something you aren’t telling him.

 **‘You’re quiet, what’s wrong?’** He signs, the gestures are a little slower than usual and you can tell he’s tired, too many weeks of non-stop touring taking it’s toll.

“I’m always quiet, you know that.” You reply, making a face as you do so. “You look exhausted, when are you taking a break?”

‘ **I don’t look exhausted, I look fabulous. And don’t change the subject, short stack.** ’

You roll your eyes at the nickname, your loving twin had always poked fun at your short stature, despite being only an inch or so taller himself. And while you had to concede that he was indeed fabulous, Alex was also annoyingly not dropping the fact that ‘something’ was up. You decide to give him a modified version of the truth, hoping it’ll be enough to get him off your case.

“Some new people moved to the area, it looks like they’re setting up shop in the woods too, a few miles from the house.”

‘ **Really? Are they building another house in the woods? Guess we’ll have neighbours then.** ’

You shrug noncommittally since you don’t actually know if any of the monsters do plan on sticking around in the area long-term, let alone building a home here.

 **'Have you spoken to any of them?** ’ Alex signs, although he clearly looks like he already knows the answer to that. You feel a burst of glee a the opportunity to surprise your sibling.

“Yeah, I met one of them. We chatted a bit.” You try to say the words casually but you can’t help smiling a little.

Your twin’s jaw drops for a second before he grins brightly. **‘Seriously? That’s great! See, only back for a few months and you’re already making friends.’**

You’ve been back living in your grandmother’s old house for more than a few months, closer to half a year. You don’t point that out though, not wanting to burst Alex’s bubble. “I’m not sure if we’re friends yet, maybe friendly acquaintances. They seem okay though.”

Your reserved answer seems to be more positive than your brother was expecting and does nothing to curb his enthusiasm. You spend the next few minutes giving evasive answers as he attempts to grill you for any other details about your mysterious new neighbours before you eventually manage to change the subject.

“Are you still going to be able to come home for Christmas?”

‘ **Of course, I wouldn’t miss your cooking for the world. And I guess I kind of miss you, munchkin.** ’ He adds, poking his tongue out at you. **‘I’ll be home a few weeks later than we planned though, the tour’s been extended again. We’ve had some dates added in Europe.’**

“Europe, wow that’s fantastic!” You feel a rush of pride as well as a mixture of other less comfortable feelings which you push to one side, focusing on Alex’s smiling face on the screen. “I’m glad we’ll be together again soon though, I miss you.”

Your voice sounds small as you say the last part even though you’d been aiming for levity, and your twin frowns slightly.

‘ **I can come back sooner, if you-** ’

“No, no I’m fine!” You quickly cut him, waving your hands to emphasise the point and immediately feeling terrible for even making the thought cross his mind. This was Alex’s big break, you’d already screwed things up for him once. You couldn’t possible risk hurting his or the band’s chances again.

Alex doesn’t sign anything for a few moments, studying your as though he’s trying to work out your thoughts.

‘ **Okay. I do miss you though, really. We all do.** ’

You smile but it feels false, you know where the conversation is going and you really don’t want to talk about this at the moment.

“Well, we’ll see each other soon, right?”

‘ **Seb really wants to talk to you. Won’t you try and take one of his calls sometime? He only wants to talk.** ’

“Please Alex, I can’t. I know it’s my fault and I owe him an apology. Owe you all a lot of apologies. But I just can’t, not yet. Please don’t make me.” You pinch the bridge of your nose and unsuccessfully try not to feel pathetic as you will back tears. You can’t let Alex see you like this, he doesn’t need more of your shit.

‘ **Okay, it’s okay. I’m on your side**.’ Alex tries to soothe. The last part has become something of a mantra between the two of you. He doesn’t try to tell you that you’ll feel better after talking to Sebastian, to everyone. He’s already told you several times, you know he wants you to talk to them.

For the rest of the call you talk about lighter, everyday stuff as your brother tries to distract you. You tell Alex about the new recipes you’ve been trying, he tells you about life on tour, while carefully avoiding any sensitive topics. You actually do feel better by the end of the call, but your anxiety is still quite intense.

 

You spend the rest of the evening padding around the house, trying to occupy yourself with a book, a TV show, browsing the internet. Nothing is loud enough to keep you focused and eventually you head down to the kitchen early and start on a batch of loaves, losing yourself in the solid, physical work of kneading the dough.

  
You work through the night and don’t sleep until you return home from delivering orders the next morning. You collapse exhausted on the couch and quickly fall into a sound sleep, blissfully free of the intense anxiety that had gripped you earlier. You dream fanciful dreams of monsters and magic.


	3. Chapter 3

Another week passes, and you’re almost starting to wonder if you managed to imagine Sans, until finally one morning you wake up to find monsters invading the news channels. Not literally, but they may well have been to hear some reporters describe it. A few stations seem to be taking a skeptical stance but from what you’ve seen everyone is reporting the same story, more or less. Perhaps the government organized some kind of press release. The information all seems to be quite vague, but there’s a clip of some official who manages to look nervous and annoyed at the same time as he recounts the apparently accurate story that Sans had told you, only this guy uses far stuffier terms. He goes on to add that the monsters will remain isolated from human society for the time being, and that there are plans in the works for a ‘separate but sustainable overground monster community to be established’. That sounded a lot like segregation and it didn’t sit well with you. The news story also included a photography of two furry, white humanoid-goat monsters, who the reporter identified as the King and Queen of the monsters. There didn’t seem to be any other pictures out yet, but there was a short statement from the president, who urged the public not to panic but instead to remain calm while negotiations and policies are put in place to deal with this revelation. You couldn’t help but chuckle at that, fat chance of people not freaking out over this. 

That cynical thought is proven true sooner rather than later, the news has barely been out for an hour and already the stations seem to be inundated with anti-monster rants, and general outcry from the public. You kind of understand the panic and confusion, but how can people be so sure straight away that they hate monsters? They know nothing about them yet. You switch off the TV with a sigh and make a point not to watch is for the next few days. 

You can’t escape the constant stream of monster-related news on the internet, where the news has of course gone viral, however you are pleasantly surprised to see that some people are also having positive reactions to monsters too. You get a string of excited texts from Alex, he seems delighted by the idea of monsters, which actually isn’t surprising at all. Apparently the band are going to play a cover of Monster Mash at their next show, you grin at that. On your trips into town - you’d managed to repair your bike not long after crashing into Sans - everyone was much more insistent on talking to you than usual, and the topic everyone wanted to discuss was monsters. Most people just seemed scared and confused, but an alarming amount of your neighbors seemed to have quickly picked up monster phobic or otherwise anti-monster attitudes. You’d heard some really horrible things being said. Luckily it didn’t seem to be common knowledge yet in the town just how nearby the monsters currently were, you wondered how much worse everyone would be once they found out. 

You decide to try and limit your trips into town for a week or two, hopefully things will blow over a bit by then, or at least be a bit clearer. It was as good excuse as any to stay away, and you really wanted one given how eager people were to talk to you lately. 

It’s just starting to get dark outside when you think you hear a noise outside You’re elbow deep in cookie dough and the wind is blowing pretty hard out - it’s probably just the gate slamming in the breeze, so you decide to ignore it. Instead you focus on working the dough to bind all the ingredients together, a lot of people use a food mixer for this part but you prefer to do it by hand. These cookies always turn out great, you’ve used way too many chocolate chips like you usually do, but they taste so good that way. The mixture looks slightly too wet though so you add a little more flour. Once it looks fine you reach to put the spoon on the counter next to the flour, but you manage to knock the bag over. Swearing under your breath as the flour explodes in a puff of white dust you suddenly hear another noise from outside, this time much louder, it sounds like a child squealing in shock. You quickly try and brush some of the flour off with a tea towel as you run towards the door.

“Hello?” You call out, “Is someone there?”

There’s no reply but you hear some rustling from a bush under the kitchen window. At this point you’d normally be freaking out, but that voice had definitely sounded young and there was no way you were going to leave a kid out here on there own. It’s getting dark and your house is miles from anywhere. Taking a tentative step towards the bush you try again. 

“Hey, I heard you shout. Are you okay? Don’t be scared I won’t hurt you and you’re not in trouble.”

For a beat there was no response, and then a small monster popped their head out of the bush. They look kind of like a lizard or a baby dinosaur, with yellow scales and spines sticking out in a line along their head. They gazed up at you looking equal parts nervous and curious, you couldn’t help but think the little monster was utterly adorable. 

“H-Hey. Did you mean what you said, I’m not in trouble?” They ask you in a breathy rush.

“Sure, not with me at least. You must be cold, do you want to come inside?” You bend down a little as you say this and offer your hand to the small monster.

“Really? Yeah, thanks!” 

They eagerly hop out of bush and you realize with a start that they don’t have any arms. You awkwardly start to pull your hand back but they bump their shoulder against it before you do and smile at you. 

You wonder if you were right to ask them inside, they seem like they’re only a child, aren’t kids meant to be wary of strangers? You ignore your doubts and decide not to second guess yourself, you’re already leading them into the house you can’t change your mind now, and it is very cold. Hopefully this isn’t going to make any monster parents angry at you later.

As you both step into the well-lit hallway the kid gaps. You expect them to say something about the house, because people are often surprised by it, but instead they are looking at you fearfully.

“I-Is that dust?” They ask, their voice shakes.

“Huh?” You swipe at your cheek and remember you’re still covered in a fine coating of flour. “Um, it’s not dust. It’s flour.”

The young monster relaxes instantly, it seems odd that they’re so scared of dust. Maybe that means something else to monsters?

“Like flowers that grow in a garden? It doesn’t look like flowers.”

“No flour with a U. It’s an ingredient, it goes in things like bread and cake.”

“Wow, humans have cake too?” They ask, eyes round.

“Heh, sure we do. I’m making some cookies at the moment actually. I should probably clear up the mess I made by dropping that flour.”

The kid nods and follows you into the kitchen.

“So, still not mad at you but what were you doing in my garden? Aren’t you going to have people worried about you?”

“My mom might be mad, but I’m gonna be back before she notices!” They cast a shifty look over to the window as they say that. “I should probably go back soon though. I’m not really doing anything wrong! I just wanted to meet another human. Frisk is really cool, but they’re just normal, I wanted to see what other humans are like.”

“Sorry to disappoint but I’m pretty boring, even by human standards.” You reply wryly as you throw away the spilt flour. “I’m ______, what’s your name kid?

“Hah! Kid is my name, I’m Monster Kid. Or you can call me MK.” MK introduces themselves, grinning at you.

You wash your hands before getting back to the cookie dough, separating the dough into balls and spacing them out on a baking tray.

“Nice to meet you MK. I don’t mind you being here you know, but do you think maybe you should call your mom? It’s starting to get late, she might be really worried about you.”

Monster Kid bites their lip looking a bit guilty. “Mom doesn’t have a phone that works up here yet. But I probably should go back soon. Aw, I didn’t even get to ask you any questions yet!”

“Well it is quite dark, maybe I should walk you back. That way you can ask me questions as we walk. How far away do the monsters live?” You ask. You hope the monsters won’t mind a human going into their territory too much. Any concerns you have about that are outweighed by the fact that it seems really wrong to just let a child walk alone through a cold, dark forest without any adults knowing where they are. 

“Really? That would be awesome! The camp is maybe half an hour of walking, um… that way.” The nod their head toward the east after, smiling up at you before a thoughtful look crosses their face. “But, you should probably clean up before we go. The flour really does look like dust, everyone will freak out if they see you like that. 

“Alright,” You take their word for it but decide you’ll need to ask them some questions of your own, starting with ‘what is dust?’. “I’ll take a quick shower then. And if I put the cookies in now they’ll be done by the time we’re ready to go. We can take some with us for the road, how does that sound?

MK hops enthusiastically and cheers in response to the prospect of cookies. You often have similar reactions to baked goods. 

“Will you be okay down here while I’m cleaning up?” You ask as you slide the cookies into the oven. “I’ll only be 5 or 10 minutes and the TV’s over there. Oh and don’t touch the oven it gets super hot.”

MK rolls their eyes at you and nods. 

“Okay then,” You shout as you run up the stairs. “I’ll be done in 5 minutes!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for another Sans-free chapter, I’m pretty sure he’ll be in the next one though!


End file.
